UNITED
NATIONS, July
17 -- When
NBC's Richard
Engel exited
the UN
Security
Council on
Wednesday
after advising
Council
members to
distinguish
between
journalists
who deserve
their
protection and
activists,
“Tweeters” and
state
broadcasters
who don't,
Inner City
Press
asked him a
question.

Referring
to
whistleblower
Edward
Snowden's
disclosure of
surveillance
programs
to the
Guardian as
well as
Washington
Post, Inner
City Press
asked
Engel, “Glenn
Greenwald, is
he a
journalist or
not a
journalist?”

"I
don't know
enough about
Glenn
Greenwald,”
Engel said.
“Somebody
has to make a
judgment call
someday of
when you stop
being a
journalist and
and when you
are fully an
activist.”

And
then Engel was
gone, as
Security
Council
members
continued
“debating”
the matter.
South Korea
and Australia
urged more
protection for
bloggers, for
example.

But
another of the
initial
speakers,
Kathleen
Carroll of
Associated
Press,
neglected to
make an
obvious point:
that the US
government,
which holds
the UN
Security
Council
presidency for
July and
scheduled
this debate,
spied on AP.

Doesn't this
bring up
another form
of
protection
that
journalists
need?